The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that a new scam is going around campus. Apparently, students at Bucknell University, the University of Delaware, and other universities are receiving official-looking letters from Advanced Collection Services saying that the student has illegally downloaded material from Cayman Academic Resources, and that the student must pony up $500. Advanced Collection Services is an active debt collection agency, but Cayman Academic Resources is in bankruptcy. The letters being sent to students are nothing more than a scam.
North Carolinians Get Additional Protection Against Debt Collector Abuse
A recent article in the Asheville Citizen-Times noted that North Carolinians have additional protections against debt collectors under a new state law, called the Consumer Economic Protection Act of 2009 (CEPA). The new law includes a provision whereby debt buyers (those who have purchased debt from the original creditor) must verify the amount owed and prove that they have the right to collect the debt. In addition, it’s now illegal for a debt buyer to file or threaten to file a lawsuit when a debt is past the statute of limitations. Unfortunately, this new law doesn’t mean that debt buyers won’t keep trying to squeeze money out of consumers - but at least there’s another avenue of redress.
Startling Statistics and Medical Bill Horror Stories
If you’ve never been faced with an unpaid doctor’s bill or had to foot the cost for a trip to the emergency room, consider yourself lucky. According to an insightful story in the Tennessean, medical bills can lead to all sorts of headaches - including a trip to jail.
The story cites a study published by the American Journal of Medicine that found that, in 2007, over 62% of bankruptcies were due to medical debt, and that over 90% of these were bills totaling more than $5,000 or 10% of pretax income. Most startling of all is that 75% of those people had health insurance. The study also found that, between 2001 and 2007, medical-related bankruptcies increased almost 50%. This study examined bankruptcies in 2007, before the Great Recession. We can only imagine that, with skyrocketing unemployment, that number will ratchet up.
The article also illuminates what goes on in the courthouse halls when doctors’ and hospitals’ attorneys try and negotiate with consumers - who typically don’t have their own lawyers - sometimes for pennies on the dollar and other times for the original amount plus court costs and interest fees.
Sergei Lemberg
